Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-06-03
THE AUTHORIZATIONS MEETING.
Its Object Further ExpIained-The Irish
Land Laws.
Ie Editor of the Free Press

Land Laws.
To the Editor of the Free Press:
The direct object of the recent antico-
ercion meeting in Burlington was to pro-
test against the enactment of the harsh
measures now pending in the British par
lament. The Irish land question was
touched on only incidentally. | regret
that it was not more infinitely explained
and discussed. The defence of the Irish
land laws in your issue of the Goth looks
like campaign document, partly true
and partly false, but calculated to mis-
lead the public and to cast reproach on
the Irish people.
Under the first heading relative to the
land act of 1870, your correspondent gives
a list of privileges which at first sight
seem to be a veritable boon to the evicted
tenant. Now these alleged liberal pro.
visions for the compensation of the evict-
ed tenant for Improvements made by him
self, were either never enacted or they
were rendered worthless by subsequent
legislation. The act of 1870 did virtually
nothing more than to sanction the Ulster
custom, which gave evicted tenants the
aforementioned privileges, and which had
prevailed in that province for centuries.
That these privileges were confined to
Ulster after the act of 1870 the following
facts will prove. Ten years afterward
in 1880, the government introduced its
Compensation for Disturbance bill. In
connection with 1t the nationalist party
proposed a Fixity of Tenure. bill whereby
the Ulster tenant custom was to operate
throughout Ireland. This proposition
was lost in the Commons and the main
bill was defeated in the House of LORDS.
And again, while the much Wanted land
act of 1881 was under debate, Mr.. Healy
introduced the clause which bears his
name. to the effect, that no rent
should be made payable in any proceed
ings, under the act, upon any improve
ments effected by the tenant or his prede-
cessor in title" Before the passage of the
bill, the Healy clause was modified by
the following addition: unless the ten
ant has been paid or otherwise compensa-
ted for these improvements" And this
addition practically nullitied the clause !;
for majority of the judges of the
Supreme Court afterward held that by
the act of 1870, the landlord was entitled
to claim, that length of enjoyment by the
tenant of improvements effected by him,
was a compensation within the meaning
of the Healy clause, and within the mean
ing of the act of 1881. Instead of any ben
eft accruing from the act of 1870, the
number of evictions increased after its
passage. In three years before its intro
duction the ejectments on notice to quit
numbered 1850 in three subsequent years
the number reached 5641, an Increase of
1891. In the next three years they num-
bered S4S9. And these numbers represent
the eapricious evictions, they do not in
clude the ejectments for non-payment of
rent or no title. OF the act of 1870, JUS
| tin Mccarthy says: ut might have been
| justly styled, an enactment by which the
amusement of evicting tenants was made
| the monopoly Of the weather. landlords. ="
So much for the privileges of the act of
| 1870.
The act of 1881 like that of 1870 gave
| fair promises but meagre results. Like
all English legislation for Ireland, what it
offered with one hand, it withdrew with
the other. Whilst making provisions for
a settlement by land commission of dis
putes between tenant and landlord it de-
creed that the landlord may enter for min
| ing, quarrying, timber cutting or sporting
purposes, and that the court may compel
the tenant to sell his holding to the land
lord, if the ground is required for build
| ing purposes or for the good of the estate
| The land commissioners almost invaria-
bly, favored the landlord, and the tenants
| who had the courage or the means to 90 to
law with him soon discovered that it was
far better for them to take their chances
outside the court THE land act of 1851"
says an American writer, "by which Mr.
| Gladstone undertook TO solve the problem
OF Irish misery and Irish discomfort, has
not proved to be the true solution. In the
| five years which have elapsed, the price of
agricultural products of all kinds has
fallen so heavily under the stress of com
petition from india and America, that the
legal rents have become excessively bur
densome." Surrounded as we are. in
America, by countless sources of teamng
wealth, it is difficult to understand the
| helplessncss of the average Irish tenant
in spite of the apparent advantages at his
disposal. But let us bear in mind that
the land, and consequently the wealth, of
| Ireland are in the hands of strangers who
care nothing and do nothing for the crea-
ton or promotion of Irish interests. Legis-